I have to agree with Tydirium. The SW line is going to die if Hasbro is gonna go heavily on the rehash route. Unless they have something up their sleeves that we don't know about yet. And there might be. If not, this line will be dead by the summer of 2006.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt last year because the DVD news was a surprise. Supposedly that was the reason for all of the rehashes because they did not have enough time to make new figures. Remember all that? I don't think that will fly next year.

There better be some really cool new figures on tap that collectors have wanted like Hermi Odle, Tonnika Sisters, Veers with removeable armor, Hem Dazon, Han and Luke in Stormtrooper disguises with VOTC type bodies.

So far the only figure that I am remotely interested in buying would be the newly resculpted Bib Fortuna. Maybe that Han out of Carbonite...maybe.

I'll take September 2006 in the JD.com SW Death Pool. I don't expect ther to be ANY new Star Wars figures in the back-to-school Toy aisle resets that indicate we are heading into the start of the Christmas 2006 shopping season.

I wonder though what the next big thing will be? Cards to Comics to Action Figures to ?

Jeff

I said it before, I'll say it again - I'll take September 2006 in the JD.com SW Death Pool.

I said it before, I'll say it again - I'll take September 2006 in the JD.com SW Death Pool.

Should we start another thread for this? Seriously. We should buy all the Clone Pilots and Neimoidian Warriors and the person who "wins" gets to be stuck with all of them. It's like a booby prize, but without the boobies.

Seriously, I'll give them until June 2006. The Battle Packs will flop this fall, retailers will be pissed (as if Wal-Mart probably isn't pissed enough at Hasbro after the Early Bird disaster) at Hasbro, and Toy Fair 2006 will result in that oh-so-legendary statement that we hear every so often with a 1985 ending:

"Star Wars fell short of our expectations last year and retail continues to show a lack of interest toward the lines. Therefore, we have decided that (particular wave of figures) will be our last for a while. The line is not cancelled, but we are going to take at least a year to reevaluate the line's future."

Then two years later a new line of 6" scale figures launches, and bombs horribly because everyone wants 3.75" figures, and retail says a great big and final "**** you" to Hasbro and SW toys for another ten years.

This is the first time where I'm genuinely beginning to worry for the future. I still haven't had time or $$ to digest all the ROTS stuff yet, but as far as Hasbro is concerned that line is over and they're already attempting to move on and shoot themselves in the foot.

I've said it many times and I'll say it again ... there's enough vehicles, aliens, EU stuff, and assorted background characters to easily keep this line going past 2018 if Hasbro played their cards right. A couple of POTJ-type years of background aliens, playsets, Turbo-tanks, and SA clones out the wazoo and we'd all be happy as clams. It seems so logical, doesn't it? Too logical apparently.

But there's a wild card most doomsday predictions seem to overlook ... two TV series in a couple years. If they can get over their EU phobia, Hasbro has a huge opportunity for realistic-style figures based on these shows. If the series are well-received and the toys are well-done, these TV lines could be quite popular among kids and collectors alike.

It will also be a way to keep the film-based figures alive for several more years by piggybacking them on the TV hoopla.

I love this hobby, but I am running out of room, money and patience. I would love to see it slow down to one new case assortment per month. A phase out like the original POTF line in 85-86 would not hurt my feelings, with an occasional few figures to tie in with Anniversaries and maybe a few exclusives. I dont even think a TV series will be able to pump enough life into the marketing of new toys.

Maybe Hasbro just doesn't want to commit the resources they have in the past to SW. They realize like we do the line's salad days are over, so they figure they'll just scrape by with rehash crap.

Or, maybe they're just reloading. We saw a lot of rehashes all of a sudden at the tail end of the AOTC line, remember (Ki Adi Mundi, Yoda, Tusken Raider) before they came back at us with new stuff in 2003.

I'd like to believe the future's so bright I have to wear shades, but I doubt it.

I like to think it's a lull before a storm of goodness too Spuffy. I'm sad at the same time though because the re-releases aren't necessarilly bad ideas all the time (just what Hasbro SEEMS to be re-releasing are bad ideas). The battlepacks and stuff are neat ideas with potential, but things like that may get trumped by poor sales of the early sets... Like the TRU 4-packs. Not bad ideas, and they even started out strong, but they wound up being failures by the end of the run.

I'm more disappointed that the SDCC was so looked forward to but has really been kinda "meh", at least at the start.

Honestly, I think that Hasbro is purposely sabotaging the line so they can quit making the toys that probably get them more ill will from collectors in this day and age than any of their other lines. I'm beginning to believe that the only reason that they renewed the license for so many years is not because they wanted to keep making toys themselves, but to KEEP SOMEONE ELSE FROM MAKING MONEY. I think they renewed the license out of spite.

The last 12 figures of the ROTS are all repaints, and several of those are completely unnecessary (Wookiees and Neimoidians, I'm looking right at you), and the figures that everyone was anticipating (Cody and other Padmes) are nowhere to be found. With the glut of Wookiees, Neimoidians, and Clone Pilots on the shelves, Hasbro SHIPS MORE. Retail is not going to like this one bit, and with WM already pissed off about the EB fiasco, that's nail number one.

The Unleashed line, which has turned into Hasbro's second most popular line and undoubtedly the best "comeback" story of any SW line done, is suddenly cancelled out of thin air so Hasbro can "reboot" in a new scale that they already have at least three other lines in the same scale to compete with.

There is NOT A SINGLE ORIGINAL SCULPT amongst anything we have seen thus far. Meaning Hasbro had this planned out at least a year in advance (remember how they kept saying that they were busy all last year developing ROTS stuff?) and kept it under wraps that they were essentially going to try and bury the line with endless rehashes.

It's just plainly obvious to me that Hasbro doesn't give a flying **** about the line at this point and is doing everything in the world that they can do to intentionally sabotage its performance at retail, so they can quit making them altogether. And like clockwork, they'll blame retailers and collectors for the line failing, never admitting that it was their fault that they repainted and reshipped that goddamned Neimoidian Warrior.

Honestly, I think that Hasbro is purposely sabotaging the line so they can quit making the toys that probably get them more ill will from collectors in this day and age than any of their other lines. I'm beginning to believe that the only reason that they renewed the license for so many years is not because they wanted to keep making toys themselves, but to KEEP SOMEONE ELSE FROM MAKING MONEY. I think they renewed the license out of spite.

The last 12 figures of the ROTS are all repaints, and several of those are completely unnecessary (Wookiees and Neimoidians, I'm looking right at you), and the figures that everyone was anticipating (Cody and other Padmes) are nowhere to be found. With the glut of Wookiees, Neimoidians, and Clone Pilots on the shelves, Hasbro SHIPS MORE. Retail is not going to like this one bit, and with WM already pissed off about the EB fiasco, that's nail number one.

The Unleashed line, which has turned into Hasbro's second most popular line and undoubtedly the best "comeback" story of any SW line done, is suddenly cancelled out of thin air so Hasbro can "reboot" in a new scale that they already have at least three other lines in the same scale to compete with.

There is NOT A SINGLE ORIGINAL SCULPT amongst anything we have seen thus far. Meaning Hasbro had this planned out at least a year in advance (remember how they kept saying that they were busy all last year developing ROTS stuff?) and kept it under wraps that they were essentially going to try and bury the line with endless rehashes.

It's just plainly obvious to me that Hasbro doesn't give a flying **** about the line at this point and is doing everything in the world that they can do to intentionally sabotage its performance at retail, so they can quit making them altogether. And like clockwork, they'll blame retailers and collectors for the line failing, never admitting that it was their fault that they repainted and reshipped that goddamned Neimoidian Warrior.

**** Hasbro.

I just said the same thing over in the ROTS forum - to me it is obvious that Hasbro doesn't really want this line - it's like the GI Joe guy who moved over to running the SW line (a) isn't a fan and (b) wants to see the line killed so he can move on to something else. The same thing happened at Playmates too - the original guy who had been running the line for four or five years was replaced by a new guy who thought all of the scale changes was the way to go.

Doesn't anyone in the toy industry follow what happened to other toy lines in the past or do they produce product in a bubble with blinders on?

« Last Edit: July 14, 2005, 12:02 AM by Pete_Fett »

Logged

Peter

Letting my collecting OCD get the better of me on a DAILY basis... and loving EVERY minute of it!

I thought a lot about Playmates and Star Trek tonight looking at all those repaints - most of which I like a lot, by the way - but it reminds me an awful lot of "Super Nova" series or whatever the hell it was, vac metal crap and scale changes and straight repaints and swaps. Maybe it's just all of this Lava Reflection stuff and repacks of HORRID 1997 figures (Hoth set) all in one day, and there's more goodness to come, but man...

Believing that they are intentionally doing this blows my mind. They have millions of dollars on the table, all they have to do is provide what people want. What we want is exceptionally easy to figure out too. Look at Ebay and customs and just at this forum alone.

They don't have to spend dime one to figure this stuff out and make money. Inconcievable!

just think of all the cash they'd save the retailers and the extra money from reorders they'd get?!

Doc and Pete: I can't say I fault your reasoning, but I truly hope you're wrong.

I, too, worry about how the EB ****up will affect things.

Like most of us, I do my share of griping and bitching about Hasbro and their sometimes goofy decisions. But, like most of us (I think?), at the end of the day I genuinely enjoy collecting and appreciate the products they make. Overall I believe the positives outweigh the negatives.

HOWEVER, it's times like this when I really wonder, Is Hasbro completely off their rocker or what?? This is not ******* rocket science here.